Director of Environment at the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Dr. Peter Dery has highlighted the positive impact the recently launched Green Finance Taxonomy will have on the nation’s strategy to mobilize resources to support green investment.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the Finance Ministry on the sidelines of the ongoing COP 29 in Baku, he commended the Ministry of Finance for the initiative nothing that “this will prevent greenwashing and this is why the Ministry of Environment, Science, technology  and Technology , MESTI fully endorses this initiative”.

Greenwashing is the act of making false or misleading statements about the environmental benefits of a product or practice.

This is a way for companies to continue or expand their pollution as well as related harmful behaviours, all while gaming the system or profiting off well-intentioned, sustainably minded consumers.

The Director of Environment cited several instances where MESTI had turn down projects documents because thorough assessment of these projects methodologies and baselines revealed clear instances of greenwashing.

“So MESTI will use this Green Finance Taxonomy launched by the Ministry of Finance to revise existing policies and frameworks to guide our selection  for green investment in Ghana and help reform our own architecture towards attracting green investment” he assured.

He later called on relevant institutions such as the National Development Planning Commission and other regulatory agencies to institutionalise policies and legislations to back the main objectives of the Green Finance Taxonomy to “ensure effective industry compliance and prevent greenwashing”.

Dr. Dery again argued that while  climate change issues remain urgent, environmental policies must be broadened to address pollution and biodiversity issues as well.

“Our approach shouldn’t be narrowly defined by climate alone” He stated. “We need frameworks that encompasses all environmental concerns, festering  sustainable development across multiple fronts”.

The Ministry of Finance launched the first phase of Green Finance Taxonomy to guide investments towards sustainable and climate-resilient projects.

Green Taxonomy refers to the classification system that helps to identify and classify investments as green based on their alignment with specific environmental objectives and targets.